A Jewish man who was stabbed is treated in an ambulance in the Old City of Jerusalem, on Nov. 24, 2014. Two Jewish men were stabbed and one Palestinian youth was attacked Monday in two separate incidents in Jerusalem, amid spiking tensions between Jews and Arabs in the city. (Xinhua/JINI)
JERUSALEM, Nov. 24 (Xinhua) -- Two Jewish men were stabbed and one Palestinian youth was attacked Monday in two separate incidents in Jerusalem, amid spiking tensions between Jews and Arabs in the city.
A spokesperson with the police said in a statement that a 45- year-old yeshiva (Jewish seminary) student arrived in the evening to a police station in the city with a stab wound in his abdomen.
Police said he was in moderate-to-serious condition and that another student was lightly injured in the same incident. The attack occurred near the Jaffa Gate in Jerusalem's Old City, an area which is part of annexed east Jerusalem.
"We strongly believe the stabbing was a terrorist attack," Micky Rosenfeld, a police spokesperson, told Xinhua, adding that shortly after the incident, the police had arrested three Palestinian residents of east Jerusalem in suspicion of perpetrating the attack.
In a previous incident, a Palestinian youth was beaten by three Jewish men early on Monday morning. The attack occurred outside the settlement neighborhood of Pisgat Ze'ev, which resides near the Palestinian neighborhood of Shu'fat and Beit Hanina.
Rosenfeld added the youth is in hospital and in a good condition. He said the police have opened an investigation but has yet to apprehend any suspects.
The attacks were the latest in a string of violence which has gripped the city over the past months.
Much of the violence is concentrated around the flashpoint al- Aqsa mosque compound, a holy site in Jerusalem which is sacred to both Muslims and Jews.
The tensions are stoked by Jewish hardliners who press the Israeli government to cancel a long-held ban on Jewish prayers in the site. Currently, Israelis are allowed to visit the site but not to pray there.
